Depression symptoms may be improved by treatment with CPAP or Oral Appliance Therapy

posted Jun 8, 2016, 12:37 AM by Admin SRSAN

A couple of recent studies by
Cheng and Hayley show that obstructive sleep apnea
is approximately five times more common in patients with depression than in
control participants and conversely,
that patients with obstructive sleep apnea are 5 times more likely to report depression. (Cheng et al. 2013, Hayley
et al. 2015, Wheaton et al. 2012).

There are several mechanisms
likely to account for these findings: the sleep disruption and weight gain that
are often associated with depression could cause or worsen obstructive sleep
apnea; at the same time, obstructive sleep apnea could trigger or exacerbate
depression by causing sleep disruption and inducing cognitive changes by
intermittently starving the brain of oxygen (Povitz 2014).

Sleep apnea and depression
share many common symptoms – persistent fatigue, daytime sleepiness, low
vitality and concentration problems. According to Carol Lang, a University of
Adelaide researcher who studies the link
between sleep apnea and depression, women have more depression than men and
women with obstructive sleep apnea have more severe depression symptoms
(Doheny, 2015).

However, treatment with CPAP
or Oral Appliance Therapy tends to result in a significant improvement in depressive symptoms (Povitz et
al. 2014). According to Povitz, the greatest improvement has been observed in
those patients with the most severe depression - paving the way to new therapeutic
modalities for this highly prevalent
condition.

Hayley, Amie C., et al. "The relationships between insomnia, sleep apnoea and depression: findings from the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2008." Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry 49.2 (2015): 156-170.